The morgue
As a pathologist working for the Coroner's Office, Dr. Natalie Lambert has an office in the Coroners Building, usually referred to as the morgue. Exterior scenes were filmed on location at the actual Coroners Building in Toronto; but a set was built for the interior scenes—though Dr. Lambert's job takes also takes her to crime scenes for the initial evaluation of the victim's condition. At first, the morgue set consisted only of a single room that served as a combination of Natalie's laboratory and office. Partway through Season One, this was extended to include a short stretch of corridor outside one of the doors into the room, and a walk-in refrigerated room where corpses could be kept. Additional corridors were built in Season Two; and some scenes in Season Three suggest that these may later have been further extended (or else new angles were being used). Because of the way it is filmed, one gets the impression that the main part of this set, Natalie's office itself, is a fair size. Actually, it was quite a small set, though a full four-sided one. All four sides could be broken away, though, allowing the room to be filmed from "behind" the walls. As well, the lenses used on the camera were often chosen to expand the depth of view, so that the room would look larger. Natalie's office The main part of the morgue set is an all-purpose room tiled in turquoise. It combines the functions of laboratory, office, and autopsy room. There are three principal ways onto the set: through a door in one of the end walls, and through two doors built into one of the side walls. (The remaining side wall has no door; and the remaining end wall has the steel door to the cold storage area.) All three entrances are in regular use by actors entering and leaving the set; none of them can be correlated with particular routes through or exits from the Coroners Building. The most commonly used entrances to Natalie's office are in one corner of the room, diagonally opposite her desk. There is a short hall, just deep enough for the door at the end to be opened and laid back against the inner wall. One of the side doors is also off this short corridor. Both doors have windows; but, for the door at the end, this is a small opening, while the side door has a large half window. The exterior lighting usual on the set makes the former window look bright pink and the latter look blue; so it is important to note that this lighting does not reflect the colour of the walls of the corridors that lie outside the doors. The rest of the end wall is taken up by a laboratory area. The inside side wall (without doors) has various things mounted on or set close by the walls, but serves primarily as an open area for people moving around the room, especially when heading for the desk. This is positioned end-on to the side wall, jutting out into the room to cut off an office area. At the far end of the room is the door to the walk-in refrigerated room, while (besides having two doors out to the corridor) the remaining wall is primarily taken up by various storage cabinets. Although the ceiling was not visible in most angles that were filmed, it was white, with long strips of fluorescent lighting. Lab Bench Most of the end wall is taken up by a laboratory area. Closest to the door, there is a small table on castors: this bears various lab equipment depending on the needs of the episode. Beside it is a lab bench that runs almost to the corner of the room, with a stool for Natalie to sit on. Above is a shelf with jars and bottles of chemicals. Fitted under the shelf is fluorescent lighting so that Natalie can see clearly as she works. Various equipment has been used here, including a microscope and centrifuge. Underneath the bench are open shelves to the left and a set of three drawers in the centre. However, Dr. Lambert is never seen removing anything from storage there. At the end of the lab bench is a built in sink. It was into this that Nick spat out the bright green blood substitute that she pressed on him in Dark Knight. The lab bench does not quite fit to the side wall, leaving a gap of a couple of feet where Dr. Lambert has some equipment hanging on the wall. Inside Wall The side wall is largely used for hanging things: posters of human anatomy, a blackboard, and a lighted X-ray panel. It runs down to an office area at the far end of the room. When Dr. Lambert is working there, Nick tends to stands in front so he has room to pace a bit as he talks to her. Desk area Natalie's desk has been set with one end against the wall, so that it juts out partway across into the room, cutting off an office corner. If Natalie is at her desk, therefore, she has to get up and come round it into the middle of the room in order to circle round back to the lighted panel and view an X-ray. On the wall beside her desk, Natalie has put a pair of notice boards, on which there are always pinned up messages. There is also a calendar; and the date on this varies from episode to episode as the pages are changed. The desk itself contains the usual paraphernalia, including an in/outbox, telephone, and desk lamp. Behind the desk, running along the rear wall, are a pair of filing cabinets. Various things are on top; but the most clearly seen is a coffee-maker, though Natalie is never seen with it in use. Next to the filing cabinets is a computer desk, with a PC and a printer. Natalie usually uses it facing the wall; but Grace tends to turn it around so that it faces out into the room. An anatomy print has been stuck to the wall above the computer screen, perhaps to give Natalie something to look at as an alternative to a screen saver. Rear Wall Next to the computer table, in the middle of the rear wall of the room, there is a heavy metal door leading into the walk-in freezer. Beyond this, there is a metal refrigerator. Although we rarely actually see Natalie use it, a sign inside the door indicates that it is designated to be employed for the storage of blood and tissue samples. There is space on either side of this refrigerator; and Natalie has put various things there in different episodes. At one time, a coat rack stood to the left of the refrigerator; at other times, she has put the skeleton there. Sometimes a hazardous waste disposal bin has been set in this area, on one side or the other. A functional-looking clock is located high on the wall to the right of the steel door, just to the left of the refrigerator. Corridor-Side Wall 200px|right|thumb|A large refrigerator stands to the left of the side door to the room. Turning the corner, you come back to the other side wall. Running up from the end corner, there is a second, much longer steel cabinet with several doors. This is another refrigerator. Again, Natalie was rarely seen at the refrigerator. It sometimes appears in the background of shots; but most of the camera angles that were used actually show little of it. Beyond the long fridge, there is a side door to one of the corridors. This must lead to the front door of the Coroner's Building, since Nick runs this way in The Fix when he wants to go out of the building in daylight to test the effectiveness of the lidovuterine that Natalie had injected into him. However, of the entrances to the office, this is the one used least by the actors. There are several small things on or against the wall that runs between this side door and the second side door near the front entrance to the office. Just to the right of the side door, there is a space where, when it is not in use, Dr. Lambert keeps a small table on castors. This is for the tools she uses during an autopsy: it can be wheeled over to the autopsy table, and moved around from one side to the other depending on where exactly she wants to stand. Beside it is a steel sink with a small holder above it containing a bottle. This is presumably the sink Dr. Lambert uses to wash up after an autopsy; the bottle may contain disinfectant. To the right of the sink is a tall narrow white glass-fronted cabinet, about shoulder height. This contains a number of bottles of chemicals or drugs, and can be locked. In The Fix, it was in this cabinet that Dr. Lambert locked the bottle of Lidovuterine-B when she decided that Nick should no longer use it: without his vampire powers, he was unable to break into it. Beyond this cabinet is the second of the two doors in the side wall—both of which lead out onto the same corridor. This second door seems to lie within the short entrance corridor. It has a large window in it, which looks blue when the door is shut, though this is presumably because of the lighting outside (since the corridor walls are painted peach). This door is roughly opposite the end wall of the office, where the lab bench is; and Nick often uses this entrance when coming in to speak personally to Natalie (at the end of Let No Man Tear Asunder, for example). Autopsy Table There is, of course, one more major feature of the room—a large free-standing metal autopsy table in the centre. It runs parallel to the side wall, approximately from the blackboard to the end of the desk. Above the table is a hanging scale, on which Natalie can weigh things, such as organs removed during an autopsy. There is also an adjustable lamp. The autopsy table is, of course, the focus of the examination of the corpse in all the murder cases investigated by Det. Nick Knight, as well as other Homicide detectives whose cases we never learn about. Bodies are brought in in zipped body bags; but it is relatively unusual for one to be lifted directly onto the table for autopsy. It did happen in Only the Lonely: that was how Nick and Natalie met, when his apparent corpse was brought in after the explosion of a pipe bomb, only to rescucitate on the autopsy table. More usually, though, bodies are stored in the cold storage room until Dr. Lambert has time to get to them. Her schedule is always sadly busy. The body of a victim is placed on the table, stripped, X-rayed, examined on the outside, and then cut open for an interior examination. Interior organs are removed for closer examination, and samples of blood, urine, and other tissues are taken for analysis. Finally, the corpse is sewn back up. The table has a drainpipe underneath, so that bodily fluids will not flood the top of the table while the autopsy is underway. It is not unknown for something solid to slip down the pipe and block it. This happened in Capital Offense, for example; but Dr. Lambert knows how to turn plumber and solve the problem herself. Beside the autopsy table there is a table for instruments; but this is on wheels, so it can be moved if necessary. This is so that Natalie can stand on whichever side of the autopsy table gives the best possible access to the part of the body on which she is working. When she is not examining a corpse, she pushes the little trolley over to the wall by the side door, to keep it out of the way. Above the table is a hanging scale, on which Dr. Lambert can weigh things, such as organs removed during an autopsy. There is also an adjustable lamp, so she can get strong illumination when she needs it—during the close external examination of a body, as well as when she removes sections of the organs for further analysis. Dr. Lambert's desk is only steps away from the autopsy table. But, even though this is a small room, there is sufficient space in the centre to have a group discussion in the area between the desk and either the autopsy table or the lab bench. Not only Dr. Lambert but also the detectives all have become so blasé about the true function of the autopsy table that they use it to lean on, sit on, or put things on—things other than the corpses that it is designed for, that is. Cold Storage Room There is a second room in the morgue set, reached through the large steel door in the far wall, near Natalie's desk. This is a cold storage room for corpses, which are kept toe-tagged in body bags, each on a gurney. The room is pretty featureless; with plain panelled walls. There is a light switch; but a yellow emergency light is permanently on over the door. If you are inside, and turn and back, you have a good view into Natalie's office itself. Corridors Although initially there was no hallway outside Natalie's office (and doors were not seen open), a section of hallway was built partway through Season One. It lies outside the door in the end wall, which became the main entrance into Natalie's office in Season One. In Season Two, the set was extended to include another portion of hall outside the two side doors. Both are painted in an orangy salmon shade, with small eye-level signs indicating what the rooms are for. The corridor outside the front door to the office has a band of wood trim lower down. Only a small part of the hall was seen, basically just through Natalie's open door. A longer section of corridor was also built, representing corridors elsewhere in the Coroners Building. There were four episodes in which we saw more of the hallways, Beyond the Law, Undue Process, The Human Factor, and Last Knight. In Undue Process, we see a stretch of grey-painted hallway, whose walls are unadorned by the wood strips that characterize the familiar salmon-orange hall outside Natalie's office. On one side of the hall is an exit - though the scene makes it clear that this is not the one that Natalie uses when she comes in. Where it goes, therefore, is unknown. On the other side of the hall, just before it turns to the left, there is a door going into a laboratory. And a little further down from the end of the hall is another door, through which Natalie goes on her way office; to her office. Just by this door is a time-check point for the security guard on night patrol. His route takes him out of the end laboratory, down to check in, and then across the hall and out the exit. Presumably at some point his route takes him by Natalie's office, though, for there is a later scene in which he catches her there when she is supposed to be off duty. In The Human Factor, Natalie and Tracy talk while walking through hallways in yet another part of the building. They pass through a section of white-painted block construction, pass through double swing doors, and come out into the familiar salmon-orange hallways that we are accustomed to see near Natalie's office. In the corridor outside the door, there is a seat up against the wall: here, in Jane Doe, Natalie talks to Tracy as she recovers from the ordeal of helping to autopsy a weeks-old corpse. Exterior * Coroners Building Morgue